Faculty

The Urban and Regional Planning Program at the University of Michigan's Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning educates students to be change-oriented leaders in the planning profession and academy.

Faculty

Our faculty conduct research informed by a commitment to improve the fairness, prosperity, and environmental and social sustainability of neighborhoods, cities, regions, and mega-regions; and serves the academic and broader communities in ways that harness the skills and commitments of its faculty, students, and staff.

The mission and goals of the faculty of the Urban and Regional Planning Program at Michigan are to teach students, engage research, and provide public service in ways that shape place-based policy and design for social and racial equity, promote regionalist solutions to metropolitan problems, advance just and effective remedies for urban decline, and facilitate the creation of human settlements that offer alternatives to environmentally consumptive land-development patterns. In teaching, our faculty strive for a productive balance between theory and practice, between classroom-based and hands-on learning, and between a well-founded core and in-depth specializations. We foster ongoing research, teaching, and service interchange with other units in Taubman College and the University of Michigan; within our region, and the City of Detroit in particular; and worldwide.

Research

Taubman College provides a rich setting for both individual and disciplinary response to this rising demand for design and planning of the built environment. Our mission is based on thoughtful agility. We seek to understand, interrogate and advance these related fields within the context of exciting new global geographies, technologies, and ethnographies, focusing on both the exalted and unsung aspects of everyday life. In pursuit of this ideal, the college offers a complementary array of degree programs and a dynamic mix of expertise, resources and events.

The University of Michigan is a major research university with a distinguished tradition in which technology plays a major role. Industrial production, respect for craft and a commitment to social ideals are deeply rooted in this region. The university has a remarkable range of academic units, among which interdisciplinary initiatives are encouraged and generously supported. For all these reasons, the college has long held the position that research, technology, and social justice are intrinsic to design.